Sad read.
Old School Machinists Disappearing
- Thread starter Weather Man
- Start date
Yep, my engine builder retired last year. Built 6 engines for the old man and I over the years. Need to start finding out where his employees went.
The place I work you have to run rollforming machines and we have hell finding new people. The young gens want to sit at a computer and make 100k a year. I used to think the US would never become socialist but now with the younger people not wanting to do anything I feel they would/will hand over freedom for government cheese. Sad is for sure!
I work for a rollforming company also. I've been in this for 30 years and I see the same thing. Gets worse as the years go by.
I see the same thing, but in the electrical trades. I visit many industrial facilities a year. All the boots-on-the-ground maintenance and engineering technicians are ancient. With no, or very few, young guys on their staff. No one wants to do these hard jobs any more. When these guys retire, there isn't anyone else than can support a factory. There is a ton of tribal knowledge that gets lost when one of these guys retire.
Don't throw in the towel yet gentleman. My son took an intrest in machining. At 14 we bought him an old Southbend lathe, then an heavly used AtlasClausing that he reworked. Then we bought a 1640 Victor lathe and he used the other lathe to repair the lead screws. He has a like new SuperMax mill and a 9 x40 Bridgeport he's going to freshn up. A local Farmer pays him $65 an hour to fab parts for him for implement repair. He's 16. We spent last weekend building a 12x28 dedicated machine shop in the back of our garage. That will be his space. Kids a natural.
Same thing in the Construction Industry
Pieceworkers not worth a shit have taken over.
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Pieceworkers not worth a shit have taken over.
Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com
I'm sure our great-grandparents, grandparents, etc. all said the same thing in their time.
I think there's going to be a shift though just going by what I'm seeing with my kids and their friends. Everyone in their age range absolutely hate millennials. And a lot of them are looking to go into trades of some kind. And one my buddies is an iron worker and always has apprentices coming in and he always has good things to say. I'm sure there are some bad ones, but they're outnumbered.
I think there's going to be a shift though just going by what I'm seeing with my kids and their friends. Everyone in their age range absolutely hate millennials. And a lot of them are looking to go into trades of some kind. And one my buddies is an iron worker and always has apprentices coming in and he always has good things to say. I'm sure there are some bad ones, but they're outnumbered.
I was proud of my nephew (I have six nephews, lol this the middle one) going to and finishing lineman school. He is 19 and just got his first gig with a power company out in Abilene.
I repair machine tools and the same thing is happening in my field. I'd say the youngest guy I've seen doing this is in his mid 40's. Most of us are 60+ and I see a few that are still going at it in their 70's, although limited days working. Sad to see, because there is good money in the trades.
My dad ran a sheet metal business for over 40 years. We had about 13 roll forming and stamping machines which we kept a full time machinist on staff. Many were prewar era and parts just weren’t available so it was a must. Closed shop in ‘02 when we got bought out by a company out of Europe. They closed down shortly thereafter. No idea what we’d do now.
Meh I see the other side of it, (I'm in my mid 30's for reference but do a lot of skilled manual machining all the way up through designing and programming 6 axis robots) I work in power plant generator manufacturing and a lot of those skilled trades can be done with robotics. It will definitely hurt the small mom and pop operations but so much can transfer to new modern machinery. Even sheet metal forming art that is dieing can be 3d formed from a cad file.
I have seen a terrible decline in machine/electrical/industrial repair and maintenance though. So many old guys are ready to retire and too burnt out to teach the younger guys, the guys in the middle of the career don't care because the union protects them, and the younger guys that actually do want to learn get burnt out because they get little to no guidance or apprenticeship.
I have seen a terrible decline in machine/electrical/industrial repair and maintenance though. So many old guys are ready to retire and too burnt out to teach the younger guys, the guys in the middle of the career don't care because the union protects them, and the younger guys that actually do want to learn get burnt out because they get little to no guidance or apprenticeship.
The big boys can pay and train, as you noted, the small shops will suffer. The problem is that for auto aftermarket, it is mostly small fry.
All of our machines are Dahlstrom's and they are all from 50's/60's. They are like tanks the only part that we replace are the shafts and bearings that the tooling is on. The main bodies we never wear out. We make our own tooling as well.
The thought process when I was in high school, ( class of 67 ), was you couldn't make it in life without a degree. Here we are, 50+ years later, & trades people are few & far between.....................The chickens have come home to roost !!
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I work at one of the largest paper mills in the country and 1 of the shops i send out most of the fab work too has no quoted tens of thousands in work, claiming he cant get help. I went on the job boards to look and he has an ad posted for a certified welder with machining experience only paying $15/hr. Unless they just out of prison or in the country illegally no one will work for that. You can make $20hr in costco and be in A/C all day, so no one who can run a lathe, mill, cnc, tig/mig weld and do sheet metal work is going to do so for low pay. These people dont exist, hence a "labor shortage." The whole industry out of touch!
The honcho in charge needs to clue this guy in to reality.
a whole generation has their head stuck in the 1970s "back in the day i started from the bottom for $4/hr and worked my way up"... "why cant you do the same?"... "no one wants to work!"
and the funny thing is these same individuals are the gatekeepers and refuse to teach or take on apprentice for fear of getting replaced. Ok pal, its been 40yrs, at some point you gotta consider retiring.
It's not just machinists - many, many trades are suffering the same issues. Spoke with an civil engineering firm yesterday that is turning away work unless it's on developments that they created. Spoke with the president and he said they can't keep enough surveying staff. Started farming it out and didn't like the results of not having everything under their roof, under their control, and not making enough profit when farming it out. They made the decision to control the work volume and keep quality in-house.
If anyone listens to podcasts, should check out Mike Rowe's "that's how I heard it". Essentially, with every five skilled trademen that retire, there are only 1-2 replacing them. Rowe also created a non profit that gives out scholarships to graduating seniors to attend trade schools. I think he gives a million a year or something like that.
If anyone listens to podcasts, should check out Mike Rowe's "that's how I heard it". Essentially, with every five skilled trademen that retire, there are only 1-2 replacing them. Rowe also created a non profit that gives out scholarships to graduating seniors to attend trade schools. I think he gives a million a year or something like that.
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